Thursday, September 21. 2006

A Glorious Vision: Misconceptions and the Middle East
By Gamaliel Isaac, Ph.D.

Email: gamalieli@hotmail.com or
isaacgam@uphs.upenn.edu

In June of 2002 President Bush outlined a glorious vision for peace in the Middle East. He said: 1
My vision is two states, living side by side in peace and security…
In 2005 he expressed the opinion that many Israelis and Palestinian Arabs desired such an arrangement. He said2:
I want it to happen before I'm President, but it's not about me. That's my point. It's about the Palestinians, and it's about the Israelis, all of whom want to -- many of who want to get rid of the past and have a more glorious future by living side-by-side in peace and democracy. And it's -- I think it's going to happen.

This is a glorious vision; a vision in which the United States will help spread freedom in the Middle East and by doing so bring peace to the region. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said that the approach of the Bush administration to achieving his vision of peaceful coexistence is3
“ Premised on sound strategic logic” .
After Israel uprooted the Jewish inhabitants of Gaza and turned their land over to the Palestinian Arabs in order to help bring about President Bush’s vision a song was written by Palestinian Arabs expressing another “glorious” vision.

Sunday, September 17. 2006

As I survey the fragile planet we call home, my mind makes note of the chaos, blood, and tears. The cries of a million lost souls shatter the night in a million corners of the earth. The sensitive, compassionate among them try to feed the hungry, heal the sick, clothe the naked. One by one their energies dissipate. They try to hold back the tide with a teaspoon and then see the impossibility of the task. The Jewish people are but a cosmic speck in this universe. To many Jews who feel deeply about their own people, that speck becomes the whole world. Other Jews are irrevocably tied to non-Jewish pursuits.